­Four out of seven Russian women qualified for the finals and, judging from their opening performance, it seemed one of them might even get a place on the podium.

Evdokia Grechishnikova started the second event with the best result from an earlier fencing tournament, while her team partner Ekaterina Khuraskina was third.

The swimming competition saw both women relinquish their leading roles, with Grechishnikova dropping to fourth and Khuraskina all the way down to 13th.

In the third event, which is show jumping, Evdokia Grechishnikova and her horse made only one mistake and climbed up to third place going into the final phase which is running and shooting.

At that point she was the only Russian left with a chance to claim a podium spot as her other teammates had slipped way below 30.

The combined event, which is a little similar to biathlon, where athletes run 3,000 meters, stopping to shoot at targets, separated the cool-headed from the rest.

Though the Russian's result was not enough to win an individual medal, the fourth place finish still earned Evdokia Grechishnikova a place on Russia's Olympic team.

“Despite the fact that Evdokia Grechishnikova showed her personal best results in fencing and swimming, she still couldn't win the bronze. This shows that women's pentathlon is very competitive now and to win a tournament an athlete must outdo herself,” Aleksey Khaplanov, Russia’s head coach, said.

The tournament will continue over the next few days with the men's, women's and mixed team relays still to come, as well as the men's individual final.